Growers and Grocers

The guiding principle here at Growers and Grocers is that you should know where your food comes from and how it’s produced. This isn’t because we’re all hippies who talk about the Earth Mother. It’s about trust.
We’ve all heard stories of restaurants where the chefs and the waiters spit in the food of unpopular customers […]

Concerned about the mercury levels in your salmon? Worry more about your swordfish. At least according to this report from the FDA. The report summarizes data gathered mainly from 1990 to 2002, and presents it in a simple table.
This isn’t exactly a handy print-out card like the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s guide to sustainable seafood,, but […]

The ever-vigilant bad things points to this amusing article, which mentions that the Department of Agriculture has been lying about ongoing investigations of anticompetitive behavior.
Employees created the appearance of a high rate of enforcement by logging routine letters and reviews of public data as investigations, according to a report Wednesday by the agency’s inspector […]

Phil Haack, a self-described “Malcom Gladwell fanboy,” points to this article about how three development teams worked to create the perfect healthful cookie. There are lots of interesting insights into how the food production industry currently works, and about how it might more effectively create new products in the future.

Want to start a food project in your town? Know someone who does? Trying to get your local one going?
Parke Wilde points readers to the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service’s announcement about grants for community food projects. The government has allotted $4.6 million for winning grants, so get your proposal in by April […]

Bruce Cole points readers to this chron.com profile of cheese maker Michael Miller, whose Berkshire Blue has won awards throughout the cheese-judging world.
Unfortunately, some of it has also turned up with traces of listeria.
While foodies like me yearn for the complex flavor of raw-milk cheese, it can spread harmful bacteria. This is something we tend […]

If you haven’t heard, organic food is big business. This article from the Billings Gazette tells how organic milk is flying off the shelves so fast that stores are running out. Companies are offering subsidies to farmers who produce organic dairy products.
In some ways, this is the dream come true of the pioneers of the […]

Jack Everitt of Fork & Bottle told me that Cowgirl Creamery will be opening a store in Washington, D.C. at 919 F St. NW. They expect to open on April 6. Expect to find their award-winning cheeses as well as others from small producers.
Why Washington, D.C.? It may be nothing more than the fact […]

After I pointed to The Herald’s editorial about Washington State’s bill to ban foie gras, I realized that it might be a good time to dispel common misconceptions that get mentioned with this hot-button topic.
First, what is foie gras? Foie gras (fwah grah) is the liver of a bird that’s been fattened through a force-feeding […]

Am I the only one who thinks that Whole Foods is suspiciously noble for a big chain? There have got to be some skeletons in the corporate closet. Until someone finds them, add their decision to use wind power for their stores to the list of corporate stances that seem too good to be true. […]